Deciding what music to buy is kind of a complicated process for me. I've long come down from my elitist indie high horse (for the most part) and I can begrudgingly admit there's talent outside the tiny fringes of independant music. Seriously though, even though I don't listen to the radio, I have a hard time even considering buying something that's mainstream popular. Without tackling the fact that the independent and mainstream music are blurring together more and more these days, I've noticed my prejudice seems to apply just as much to what's popular among indie circles; if for different reasons. I take the internet hype for up and coming artists with a boulder size grain of salt, because I'd be broke if I went out and bought every album that was categorized as Best New Music on Pitchfork. Not to mention the fact that what's popular doesn't actually have anything to do with whether I like it or not. While there's plenty of independant music out there that I like, there are plenty of indie rock's poster children that simply bore me.

This brings us to the album at hand, which seems to be the unanimous top indie album of 2004, and which as far as I can tell the mainstream knows nothing about (of course, it could and I would never know, what with my self imposed radio and television blackout). The Arcade Fire's Funeral has been at or near the top of every top 10, 25, 50 and 100 list I've seen recently. So I decided, what the hell, I need to find out what the fuss is all about. My reaction? Ok, you know the scene from High Fidelity when John Cusack asks what's playing in the store and Jack Black responds that it's by the shoplifting skateboard punks across the street? He tries to say something negative and then failing that begrudgingly sighs: "It's....really fucking good". That about sums it up. No kidding around, I can't get this album out of my head, and not because it's catchy (even though it is). I can see why every reviewer has dropped the cynical pretense and talked seriously about this album. It's beautiful music that's sad, angry and even inspiring. I'd say more, but whatever else I could say has already been said many, many times and by people with much more indie cred than me. It's just simply an excellent album.